Facebook riot inciter is jailed for four years

A Facebook user who tried to stir up a riots on the streets of South Wales was jailed for four years today as a deterrent to others.

A Facebook user who tried to stir up riots on the streets of South Wales has been jailed for four years as a deterrent to others.

Jamie Counsel, 24, was told a message had to go out to anyone ever tempted to do the same that only severe sentences would follow.

Counsel, of The Walk, Cardiff, used to the social networking site to incite disorder at a time when police forces in England were trying to control looting and violence across a dozen cities.

Using his home computer, he set up web page inviting others to spread the widespread disorder into Wales, prosecutor David Webster told Cardiff Crown Court today.

"His page was entitled 'Bring the Riots to Cardiff' and later it was changed to 'Take the Riots to Swansea'.

"Thirty six people joined the first group followed by a further 35 when it was renamed".

Counsel pleaded guilty to inciting violent disorder when he appeared in court a month ago but at that time claimed he had done it only as a joke, not realising what the consequences might be.

Yesterday, he withdrew that claim, in the face of repeated warnings from the Recorder of Cardiff Nicholas Cooke QC that a substantial sentence would follow and despite offers to adjourn the case for a full jury trial.

Defence barrister Ruth Smith, said: "He now accepts the Crown's case and he intends using his time in prison positively to continue his education."

She told the court Counsel had already tried to change his life after being in custody previously for being part of a late night group attack on two men in the city centre's Charles Street four years ago.

He was also in 2009 found in possession of a lock knife when police stopped his car.

The judge said those offences aggravated his actions in setting up the site on August 10 but he also accepted that Counsel had not been aware at the time that people had died in the riots sweeping other cities.

But he told him:"The public rightly expects that such conduct will be deterred by severe sentences and the Court of Appeal has made it clear that must be so.

"The reasons are obvious from the scale of the disorder we saw.

"It cost vast sums of money and led to loss of life with the burden on the police being enormous and the terror to ordinary citizens incalculable.

"And you saw fit to encourge people to bring it to the streets of Cardiff and Swansea.

"The message must be clear - if anybody is tempted to use modern media to incite violence on our streets - they will be detected and will face stern punishment"

He paid tribute to officers from South Wales Police who very quickly located where the 'Bring the Riots to Cardiff' page had originated from.

The rioting began in Tottenham, London on August 6 and three days later had spread as far as Birmingham and Gloucester. It ended on August 11.

Mr Webster said:"Jamie Counsel set up his group on August 9. One of his pages was called 'Rioting Looting Robbery Burglary' where someone suggested they 'hit Howells (store) first'.

"His site was widely accessed and often by members of the public who were concerned about what they read there.

"The police received many reports from the public and discovered the user's name and details".

The court heard that on the 'Rioting Looting Robbery Burglary' page Counsel posted a time and a date - Wednesday, August 10, between 5pm and 8pm in Cardiff City Centre.

But he was arrested, still at home, at 5.40pm that day, and no one else had turned up either.

Next page: Charity boss slams 'irrational sentence'

Charity boss slams 'irrational sentence'

A youth charity boss last night slammed the four-year jail term handed out to a Cardiff man for trying to incite disorder during the August riots as "massively disproportionate."

Jamie Counsel, 25, of The Walk, was jailed for using Facebook to encourage people to riot in the Welsh capital.

Sentencing him, a senior judge said the sentence would act as a deterrent to others, adding that anyone caught using modern media to incite violence could expect to face "stern punishment".

But Paul Fletcher, policy director at youth charity Rathbone which works with more than 20,000 young people in 14 centres across Wales, claimed the sentence brought the justice system into disrepute.

He said: "In terms of some of the sentencing taking place, the thing that is most concerning is these young people are getting massively disproportionate sentences in the context of what they were actually doing.

"It’s completely irrational to lock someone up for four years who has stupidly put something up on Facebook when in the grand scheme of things, nothing happened.

"Where do we then go with young people that kill people and sentences which are not that dissimilar?

"The sentences they’re getting are between five and 10 years for that kind of premeditated violence.

"And what about other crimes such as rape where the sentences are also in that region? It seems to me to bring the justice system into disrepute."

He added: "The justice system is meant to be fair and proportionate to the crimes that take place, but it seems it is reacting to the political rhetoric that we have to deal with these cases in a robust way.

"I’m not saying we have to deal with these lightly, but that they have to be proportionate.

"I think the young person would get the same shock if the sentence was six months."

Next page: Others who used social media to incite riots across the UK

Others who used social media to incite riots across the UK

Jordan Blackshaw, 21, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, both from Cheshire, separately used Facebook to encourage disorder. Blackshaw set up a page called Smash Down Northwich Town while Sutcliffe-Keenan created a page called Let’s Riot In Latchford. Both were jailed for four years.

An unnamed 17-year-old from Suffolk, told friends on Facebook they should start rioting. He was given a 12-month youth rehabilitation order – including ban on using social media – a curfew and 120 hours community work.

Ahmed Pelle, 18, from Nottingham, used Facebook to encourage rioting and killing of police. He was sentenced to two years and nine months behind bars.

David Glyn Jones, 21, of Bangor, was jailed for four months by Caernarfon magistrates after admitting a charge under the Communications Act. He posted a message which appeared for 20 minutes called "Let's start Bangor riots".

An unnamed 19-year-old from Gloucester, posted a message on Facebook encouraging vandalism of a shop during disorder. He escaped charge after apologising to the shop owner.

An unnamed 18-year-old from Southampton, also used Facebook to incited disorder. He was released after writing an open letter apologising to the city.

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